Lists.UpdateListItems Method (WebSvcLists)

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Lists.UpdateListItems Method

Adds, deletes, or updates the specified items in a list on the current site.

Namespace: [Lists Web service]
Web service reference: http://Site/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

<SoapDocumentMethodAttribute("http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/UpdateListItems", RequestNamespace := "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/",  _
	ResponseNamespace := "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/",  _
	Use := SoapBindingUse.Literal, ParameterStyle := SoapParameterStyle.Wrapped)> _
Public Function UpdateListItems ( _
	listName As String, _
	updates As XmlNode _
) As XmlNode

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As Lists
Dim listName As String
Dim updates As XmlNode
Dim returnValue As XmlNode

returnValue = instance.UpdateListItems(listName, _
	updates)

[SoapDocumentMethodAttribute("http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/UpdateListItems", RequestNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/", 
	ResponseNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/", 
	Use = SoapBindingUse.Literal, ParameterStyle = SoapParameterStyle.Wrapped)]
public XmlNode UpdateListItems(
	string listName,
	XmlNode updates
)

Parameters

listName: Type: System.String
A string that contains the name of the list. It is recommended that you use the list GUID surrounded by curly braces (i.e., "{GUID}"), but you can also use the list display name.

updates

Type: System.Xml.XmlNode

A Batch element that contains one or more methods for adding, modifying, or deleting items and that can be assigned to a System.Xml.XmlNode object. The number of list items that you can modify through the UpdateListItems(String, XmlNode) method in a single batch is limited to 160.
The following example shows how to modify column values for two specified items.

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="1" 
ViewName="270C0508-A54F-4387-8AD0-49686D685EB2">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Update">
      <Field Name="ID">4<Field>
      <Field Name="Field_Name">Value</Field>
   </Method>
   <Method ID="2" Cmd="Update">
      <Field Name="ID" >6</Field>
      <Field Name="Field_Name">Value</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

An empty ViewName attribute in the Batch element causes the default view to be used. The ID attribute in each Method element uniquely identifies the specific update so that errors and return values can be properly identified. Each method that is posted contains Field elements that specify the ID of the item and the new field value for the item. The field ID does not correspond to the index of the item in the collection of items for the list.
The following example shows the format for adding a new item that contains both a Date value and a DateTime value.

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="1" 
ViewName="270C0508-A54F-4387-8AD0-49686D685EB2">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="New">
      <Field Name='ID'>New</Field>
      <Field Name="Title">Value</Field>
      <Field Name="Date_Column">2007-3-25</Field>
      <Field Name="Date_Time_Column">
         2006-1-11T09:15:30Z</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

The following example shows how to delete two items.

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="1" 
ViewName="270C0508-A54F-4387-8AD0-49686D685EB2">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Delete">
      <Field Name='ID'>2</Field>
   </Method>
   <Method ID="2" Cmd="Delete">
      <Field Name='ID'>8</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Note
IDs for deleted items are maintained after delete operations. Consequently, the example deletes the second and eighth items in the list, but 2 and 8 are not reassigned as the IDs of other items.

For descriptions of the various formats used for field types that can be passed in this parameter see SPListItem.
The following examples show the methods that can be posted for operations that are related to document libraries:

Move documents

<Batch OnError='Continue' RootFolder='/Shared Documents/'>
   <Method ID='1' Cmd='Move'>
      <Field Name='ID'>1</Field>
      <Field Name='FileRef'>/Shared Documents/MyFile.txt</Field>
      <Field Name='MoveNewUrl'>/Shared Documents/MyFolder/MyFile.txt</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

The previous example moves a file from the root folder of Shared Documents into a subfolder called MyFolder within the same document library.

Update documents

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="0" 
ViewName="{EF2F5A21-0FD0-4654-84ED-112B4F5A48F8}">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Update">
      <Field Name="ID">2</Field>
      <Field Name="owshiddenversion">1</Field>
      <Field Name="FileRef">
         http://Server/[sites/][Site/]Shared 
         Documents/File</Field>
      <Field Name="BaseName">Name</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Delete documents

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="0" 
ViewName="{EF2F5A21-0FD0-4654-84ED-112B4F5A48F8}">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Delete">
      <Field Name="ID">3</Field>
      <Field Name="FileRef">
         http://Server/[sites/][Site/]Shared 
         Documents/File</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Create a folder

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="0" 
ViewName="{EF2F5A21-0FD0-4654-84ED-112B4F5A48F8}">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="New">
      <Field Name="ID">New</Field>
      <Field Name="FSObjType">1</Field>
      <Field Name="BaseName">Name</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Update a folder

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="0" 
ViewName="{EF2F5A21-0FD0-4654-84ED-112B4F5A48F8}">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Update">
      <Field Name="ID">3</Field>
      <Field Name="owshiddenversion">1</Field>
      <Field Name="FileRef">
         http://Server/[sites/][Site/]Shared 
         Documents/Folder</Field>
      <Field Name="FSObjType">1</Field>
      <Field Name="BaseName">Name</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Delete a folder

XML

<Batch OnError="Continue" ListVersion="0" 
ViewName="{EF2F5A21-0FD0-4654-84ED-112B4F5A48F8}">
   <Method ID="1" Cmd="Delete">
      <Field Name="ID">4</Field>
      <Field Name="FileRef">
         http://Server/[sites/][Site/]Shared 
         Documents/Folder</Field>
   </Method>
</Batch>

Return Value

Type: System.Xml.XmlNode
An XMLDATA fragment in the following form that shows the status of each method block posted through the updates parameter and that can be assigned to a System.Xml.XmlNode object. For items successfully updated, a row fragment is returned with the updated row values.

XML

<Results xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">
   <Result ID="1,Update">
      <ErrorCode>0x00000000</ErrorCode>
      <z:row ows_ID="4" ows_Title="Title" 
         ows_Modified="2003-06-19 20:31:21" 
         ows_Created="2003-06-18 10:15:58" 
         ows_Author="3;#User1_Display_Name" 
         ows_Editor="7;#User2_Display_Name" ows_owshiddenversion="3" 
         ows_Attachments="-1" 
         ows__ModerationStatus="0" ows_LinkTitleNoMenu="Title" 
         ows_LinkTitle="Title" 
         ows_SelectTitle="4" ows_Order="400.000000000000" 
         ows_GUID="{4962F024-BBA5-4A0B-9EC1-641B731ABFED}" 
         ows_DateColumn="2003-09-04 00:00:00" 
         ows_NumberColumn="791.00000000000000" 
         xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" />
   </Result>
   <Result ID="2,Update">
      <ErrorCode>0x00000000</ErrorCode>
      <z:row ows_ID="6" ows_Title="Title" 
         ows_Modified="2003-06-19 20:31:22" 
         ows_Created="2003-06-18 19:07:14" 
         ows_Author="2;#User1_Display_Name" 
         ows_Editor="6;#User2_Display_Name" ows_owshiddenversion="4" 
         ows_Attachments="0" ows__ModerationStatus="0" 
         ows_LinkTitleNoMenu="Title" 
         ows_LinkTitle="Title" ows_SelectTitle="6" 
         ows_Order="600.000000000000" 
         ows_GUID="{2E8D2505-98FD-4E3E-BFDA-0C3DEBE483F7}" 
         ows_DateColumn="2003-06-23 00:00:00" 
         ows_NumberColumn="9001.00000000000000" 
         xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" />
   </Result>
   ...
</Results>

In this example, the ows_Author and ows_Editor attributes pertain to lookup fields to another list in the database, representing the integer IDs of items in the UserInfo table and the actual values contained by these items within the table.

Examples

The following code example modifies the values of two different field values within two items in a list on the current site. The example uses an XmlDocument object to create XmlNode objects for parameters.

This example requires that a using (Visual C#) or Imports (Visual Basic) directive be included for the System.Xml namespace.

Visual Basic

Dim listService As New Web_Reference_Folder.Lists()
listService.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials

Dim strBatch As String = "<Method ID='1' Cmd='Update'>" + _
    "<Field Name='ID'>4</Field>
        <Field Name='Field_Number'>999</Field></Method>" + _
    "<Method ID='2' Cmd='Update'><Field Name='ID' >6</Field>" + _
    "<Field Name='Field_DateTime'>
        2003-11-11T09:15:30Z</Field></Method>"

Dim xmlDoc = New System.Xml.XmlDocument()

Dim elBatch As System.Xml.XmlElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Batch")

elBatch.SetAttribute("OnError", "Continue")
elBatch.SetAttribute("ListVersion", "1")
elBatch.SetAttribute("ViewName", 
    "0d7fcacd-1d7c-45bc-bcfc-6d7f7d2eeb40")

elBatch.InnerXml = strBatch

Dim ndReturn As XmlNode = listService.UpdateListItems("List_Name", 
    elBatch)

MessageBox.Show(ndReturn.OuterXml)

Web_Reference_Folder.Lists listService = new Web_Reference_Folder.Lists();
listService.Credentials= System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

string strBatch = "<Method ID='1' Cmd='Update'>" + 
    "<Field Name='ID'>4</Field>" +
    "<Field Name='Field_Number'>999</Field></Method>" +
    "<Method ID='2' Cmd='Update'><Field Name='ID' >6</Field>" +
    "<Field Name='Field_DateTime'>
        2003-11-11T09:15:30Z</Field></Method>"; 

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();

System.Xml.XmlElement elBatch = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Batch");

elBatch.SetAttribute("OnError","Continue");
elBatch.SetAttribute("ListVersion","1");
elBatch.SetAttribute("ViewName",
    "0d7fcacd-1d7c-45bc-bcfc-6d7f7d2eeb40");

elBatch.InnerXml = strBatch;

XmlNode ndReturn = listService.UpdateListItems("List_Name", elBatch);

MessageBox.Show(ndReturn.OuterXml);

Reference

Lists Class

Lists Members

Lists Web Service

Other Resources

How to: Update List Items

Community Content

versant

Bad documentation

This is on of the worst documentaion I have seen.
If Microsoft wants people to adopt SharePoint 2010 they should adopt better help docs.
There is so much choice out there, why would anyone use SP, if one cannot write a simple app?